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Hexipuffs

Finally found a use for that leftover stripey sock yarn from almost 2 years ago 🙂

These are my very first ones though, so they’re not brilliant, a little out of shape here and there…but I’m sure I’ll get better as I go along. I struggled a little with the cast on, so I tried Judy’s Magic Cast On. That turned out to be neater, but I still found it difficult to knit up the first couple of rows…it got a little easier by the third puff, so I’m sure I’ll be doing it with my eyes closed by puff #274.

As you can see I’ve left the tails on these ones as I intend to seam up all the sides, but I think I’ll just tuck the tails in and seam up with separate yarn anyway – the puffs are so much more fun to have in a pile without tails getting all tangled up!

It’s amazing how this pattern’s turned into a bit of a craze, since being published just three months ago. Almost immediately there were projects in progress on Ravelry, exploding to around 2000 projects finished or in progress as of today.

Knitters, being a creative and multi-talented bunch, have taken the pattern and run with it, improvising and making not just quilts but scarves, cushions, heximonsters, bags (puffs within a puff!), earrings, and even stop motion hexipuff adventures! I’ve also come across hexipuff inspired project bags and lovely collections of yarn being sold in mini skeins, as well as all manner of charts to illustrate your hexipuffs – some brilliant puffs here, here, and here.

My own little squeens from Skein Queen that I got at Glasgow School of Yarn.

There are already different schools of thought on whether to just join the corners, as in the pattern, or to fully seam (my preferred option). Then there’s the various cast ons and bind offs – I’m going with Judy’s Magic Cast On, and for binding off so far I’ve been doing 3-needle bind off, but I’ve also had a look at Russian grafting. I don’t mind the seam as I’ll be joining them all up together, but I was thinking it might also be a good opportunity to practice kitchener stitch and get better at it! I’ll try all of them a few times and see which I’m most comfortable with, or whichever suits my mood at the time 🙂

There is also varying opinion on To Stuff or Not To Stuff, or indeed How Much To Stuff…I’m going with lightly stuffing, as I’d like squooshyness without the danger of explosion, and it will be easier to seam up. I also think a light-to-medium stuffed finished quilt (someday) will be easier to wrap around yourself then a super stuffed one.

So there we are, hexipuffing away. I’m putting this down as a Very long term project – on Ravelry my project is called The Patient Beekeeper’s Quilt. You need quite a lot of puffs to make a decent sized quilt (something like 380 puffs for a 3 feet x 4 feet quilt), but they are so cute and satisfying to make, and really quite addictive! They’re also definitely a good one for taking with you on the go, so I’m sure it won’t quite take me 10 years, in between everything else…

The Beekeeper’s Quilt Group on Flickr have plenty more lovely photos of hexipuffing, and this section of the Tiny Owl Knits group on Ravelry has a collection of pretty useful tips, charts, etc.